


immortal

by saltyvenus



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: F/F, i lowkey cried, this is dark and sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 15:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16767955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltyvenus/pseuds/saltyvenus
Summary: and though she had died long ago, the cold, heartless whispering only grows louder and louder each year. it’s haunting her. there won’t be a corner for zoe to hide when the wooden floorboards split, and her ghostly, pale arms stick out from underneath.





	immortal

you’d think the younger witches would be terrified of the old academy, with the aged wallpaper and the constant creaking of the stairs. you’d think that the confined rooms and restrictions would cause the older ones to roll their eyes, say how even their own bedroom back home was bigger. but zoe’s surprised when they don’t say anything, not complaining like she did when she arrived here, just a mere teen, barely discovering her powers. 

the mansion has its own personality, zoe figures, a mind of its own. devouring anyone who enters through the front door. zoe knows she’s not crazy, nor a clavoyaint like nan, so when she starts to hear it, she blames it on the house.

and it drives her mad. when she teaches her classes, it’s in the back of her head. she turns around, startling the students. there’s nothing there. she’ll apologize and carry on, but it still  _ lingers _ , and zoe has no other option than to ignore it. like a gust of air, or perhaps even a buzzing machine, the irritation it flares deep in zoe’s soul angers her. she wonders if anyone else can hear it too.

it’s not as much of a problem during the day as it is at night, where it somehow gets louder. zoe’s lying in bed, pillow to her ears to stop it from entering her mind. she swears it’s coming from across the room, but zoe doesn’t believe it, cause there’s nothing there. just the cold, empty bed that had been unoccupied for years. she’ll go to sleep eventually, after hours. next morning, she’ll have to act like it doesn’t exist, until the sun comes down and it’s dark outside, and that’s when zoe wonders if perhaps she’s gone completely and utterly mad.

she’ll tell herself not to dwell about too much, that it’ll go away. it never does, zoe soon realizes, and it stays following her, so desperately trying to infiltrate her mind and soul that it’s become a part of her now. it’s the house, she thinks, it’s definitely that, trying to play tricks on her. when zoe goes back to her room, it’s like a pounding on her head. she’ll scream,  _ go away! _ , maybe loud enough for everyone to hear, but  _ it _ doesn’t listen. it carries on.

soon, cordelia will come in, asking what’s wrong, and she’ll find zoe in the corner of the room, crying her eyes out.

it’s whispering, zoe finds out when she listens to it closely. it vomits out hurtful words to her, spewing out harsh insults that makes zoe question what she even did to deserve it. she isn’t as emotionally weak as she was before all those years ago, but the words it spits are so fucking cruel it makes zoe tear up.

late at night, it watches over her. zoe is very much alive, her cheeks pink and tired eyes shut tightly, but  _ it  _ isn’t. not anymore. it envies her lively body, her heart beating, the exhaling and inhaling,  _ feeling something _ . it leans in close, trying to sense zoe’s blood pumping around, and for just a mere second, it finally shuts up. maybe not for just a second, maybe a minute, or an hour, perhaps the whole fucking night. zoe wakes up, so,  _ so,  _ relieved it’s gone, leaving her at peace for the rest of the day.

but it will return. and it  _ does _ . the only difference is that it’s grown louder, and no longer says hurtful things. like it’s had enough of harassing her. but it’s desperate for something, something zoe can’t figure out right now. she’ll have to keep it to herself the entire day and wait for the sun to go down, when she can truly interact with it.

zoe no longer thinks it’s the house fucking with her mind. maybe it’s just a lost spirit, forever trapped between these walls, because they tend to be harsh at first.

no, no. it’s not that. there has only been one person to die inside the crooked and cracked interior of this academy, and they wouldn’t have half the mind to bother with zoe. but she’s gotten too deep to even  _ think _ for a second that she’s imagining all of it. zoe knows she isn’t, and she hasn’t lost her way either. not just yet.

but one night, the nineteenth of november she believes, the whispering gets too loud too handle. when the clock strikes 11pm, it’s like a yelling in her ear. zoe gets up immediately, dropping the book she had in her lap on the floor. she clutches her ears and blindly paces back and forth. she even reaches across the room. the whispering is loud in her ears, she’s deaf to everything else around her. but as she gets closer and closer to that section of the room, it suddenly starts to fade, slowly getting quieter. zoe opens her eyes, looking at the ground.

she bends down and touches the wooden floor, and then it stops. completely, just like that. pure relief, but the silence seems so unreal to her now, as she still expects the irritating sound to buzz in the ears.

when zoe looks closely, she notices the floorboard isn’t pushed in properly, it’s sticking out, it’s a fucking safety hazard and zoe’s pissed off. but her curiosity gets the best of her, and she reaches out and grabs it, ripping the wooden board from the floor. an array of others next to the one she just pulled out are also stacked in the same manner, sticking out. her brows are furrowed in confusion, but she keeps on ripping each floorboard out until there’s a pile of six right next to her.

she looks at it, dumped into the ground like nothing and being built over, like animal shit, or when you bury your millionth pet without any remorse or emotion, because it meant nothing to you. what has been mocking her this entire time, for so, so long. stressing her out, making her go insane. numerous tears fall out of her big brown eyes, cause she can’t help it. the sight, it’s so disturbing. it’s fucking gross. her trembling hand reaches down and prods the pale, lifeless arms. she touches the thin, blonde hair that she loved, the freezing cold lips. she’s still wearing the same outfit she wore when she passed, but as zoe looks further down her body, the legs..they’re gone. she feels like throwing up, zoe doesn’t want to guess which floorboard holds them underneath in secret.

and she should’ve know. all she wanted was for zoe to find her. perhaps her spirit still wonders around, lost, looking for a cause. she decides she’ll spend the rest of her days taunting her lover, until she finds her rotting corpse hidden below her precious bed chambers.

and after zoe does, her soul is finally at ease. she’s able to fade back into the walls of miss robichaux's academy, unnoticed and in peace. this time, there definitely won’t be a corner for zoe to hide when these poorly constructed wooden floorboards split, and her ghostly, pale arms still stick out from underneath.

**Author's Note:**

> \- okay I hope u understand whats going on, if u dont, basically the 'it'/whispering is madison (her spirit or whatever cause shes dead), and she's taunting zoe and then, near the end, she's trying to guide zoe to find her body, under the floor so her soul can be at pease (cause no one's found her yet until now, and she picks on zoe specifically cause well, she LOVES HER and trusts her). zoe doesn't realize the whispering is madison until she finds her body. it's really fucked up im so sorry I swear ill write fluff in the future
> 
> -I can see kyle prolly dumping madison underneath the floorboard after he kills her, cause it would be suspicious if ppl saw him digging a grave in the garden so..
> 
> -also, if ur wondering why the mad's whispering directs zoe to find her body on the 19th, is cause i think thats around the time she died (the second time), so if ep 4 of coven was halloween, and if a few weeks after that they performed the 7 wonders, november time would be when madison died, i guess lol. think of it as the anniversary of her death, and that's when her whispering becomes REALLY prominent on her anniversary cause shes so fucking desperate to go, causing zoe to eventually find her


End file.
